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“Bahut dinon ke baad” by Sultan Malik

A Brief Introduction

Col (Dr) Sultan Malik needs no introduction. He distinguished himself as a soldier as well as an engineer. In addition, he earned name and fame for himself in the field of music. His title song, ‘Samandar ki haseen laharon ke…’ was on the lips of many Indians. A qawwali in a DD film became a great hit. And the official song of the Corps of EME was composed as well as sung by him. After retiring from the military service, he has become more active in this field. Recently, he has released a CD of songs which have been written by him. For this album, he is the lyricist, music director as well as the singer. Complete details of the album have been sent by him, and are given below. For those who may like to reach out to him, his mail ID is : ssmall50 [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] in. A link to the title song is given below:

A symbolic representation of how music unites lovers!

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♫ ‘Bahut Dino Ke Baad…by Sultan’♫

Album of ghazals and songs By Col (Dr) S S Malik

Musical journey

Many a times, casual remarks can become the corner stones of one’s life, worth sharing. It was never known vide issue of Guftagu in Aug 2015 on my music, General Surjit, was inscribing an absorbing musical journey for me. Surely, the coverage‘Divine Notes or Tones’ did strange things. In Oct 2015, after a long gap there was a call to me from National TV (Door Darshan), to do a stage programme ‘Meri Awaaz Suno’ in Manekshaw auditorium, Delhi Cantt, which was attended by the elite of the Government of India with selected audience and was countrywide telecast

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It was a special moment for me singing live in front of family, friends and fans at the best auditorium in New Delhi.

Producing musical albums have remained exclusive job of bollywood, civilians and establishments who have all the time to find lyric writers, musicians, sponsors and other professionals for such work. They do it to earn their livelihood by way of serving the people, by entertaining them and marketing a social cause.

Well, the last lines of that write up “The Tailpiece”, are reproduced here for the readers to peep into the meaningful words written by General that have motivated me to come out with an indian music album of songs and ghazals, ‘Bahut Dino Ke Baad.. by Sultan’, a totally different musical work in tone and tenor to a soldier’s hard job, capturing the more sensitive side of human life.

“The Tailpiece :Music, they say is the language of Gods. Go to a temple or Gurudwara, you find people enchanted with what Sultan calls ‘Divine Notes or Tones’. We find the sound of music in the Church when they sing carols. And the Buddhist chanting is just as enticing. Now nearing sixty, Col (Dr) S S Malik has fulfilled his commitment with the military, and here begins the culmination of his ‘tryst’ with ‘sargam’. May the Lord bless him.”

These casual comments the write up invited brought me close to some of my diehard music fans, I never knew existed…!!!

Dr Rajnish Gill, an engineer, a professor and intellectual of global repute, who stays in distant shores of the world ‘Saat Samundar Paar- across seven seas’ in real sense, read the article. Today can call Rajnish a dear friend. My college day’s well wisher, strangely whom I had never ever met personally, never ever spoken to in life, wrote in Guftagu column, recalling and reminding after 41 years, one of my college days stage performance. Reading those comments made me thoughtful that perhaps there are some abstract forces working beyond one’s control and imagination. So a craving to contribute more in music field simply grew, thereby motivating me to do a more satisfying work that appeals to still a wider audience.

Tailpiece and Rajnish’s comments pleasantly shook and compelled me to pull out a special set of lyrics, the wanderer in me had scribbled and composed many years ago in a particular frame of lover’s mood. The album was recorded sometime back but due to other commitments could not publish it immediately.

The songs were heard by some close friends who gave a positive feedback, as a result, the same were referred to a music company, who approved the draft album and finally this art work saw the light of the day in Aug 2016.

The album is an extended play marketed by ‘Natraj Music Company’, contains five exclusive numbers as under:

Bahut dino ke baad – ghazal

Aaya mausam mastana- love song

Phirse chhoo lo hamey hawa ki tarah- ghazal

Madhur milan- love song

It is a work that will affect those who love Indian music. The lyrics are simple yet meaningful capturing natural feelings of human love, peace & care for environment. The music score is shades of indian light classical and instrumentation is soothing with flute, piano, guitar, tabla and certain effects created at appropriate places for breeze ‘hawa’, romantic cloudy weather. Special inclusion is Kafi Bulleshah the sufi poet’s mystic love poetry ‘Ranjha – ranjha’, that was translated to Hindustani and composed in Raag Marwa as experiment against age old traditional rendering in Raag Bhairavi.

My musicians and other members of the team:-

Late Vilas Adkar, musician cum arranger. Album is a tribute to his professionalism. His son Chaitanya Adkar now plays in Bollywood

Madan Kumar, recorded the album in his Pune studio. He is the one who played Mouth Organ in famous film ‘Dosti’. Rafi’s famous numbers- Chahoonga mien tujhe.., Jaane walo zara… Madan with his wife in picture.

Raju Gavalkar is famous Marathi tabla player.

Dr Rajnish Gill joined in, to be part of the event.

Er Santokh Johal from Australia, my college classmate, making sure the album is played on All Radio Stations. With his wife in the picture.

Service to the society

May be it is a record of sorts, as is not known perhaps when a commissioned defence officer in India or abroad has sung a complete musical album in service to the society. Full album written, composed, recorded and published with an effort that perhaps required General‘s motivation. Thankful I am, but he surely has an uncanny insight that looks deep into one’s psychology.

Well rest is history the album has made to apple.com paid iTunes in addition to bollywood gaana.com, amazon.com, saavn.com, music India, youtube, Google, yahoo etc., and thousands of other sites including international radio stations. It has made many of my school, college, defence, corporate and other worldwide fans & friends happy and brought me close to them or vice versa. Album can be freely down loaded from some of the above sites ‘Bahut Dino Ke Baad…by Sultan’.

Dear Sultan,
Your songs have been well received. Well done, and keep it up. May the Lord grant more strength to you to contribute to music.
Recorded music is a pleasure to listen to. But the soul of the song is in live performances. I think that in your life, you should now aim at creating a choir, with students from a school or college. And they must perform to live audiences. Recording of such programmes will give you a joy forever.
I see the makings of an ‘ustad’ in you!
God bless…and ‘lage raho, Sultan Bhai’ !
Surjit

I most humbly submit that one must honestly and sincerely accept the change, or else, there is no limit to materialistic wants. Contentment is a virtue, which is the beginning of state of happiness, which is the prime virtue, even today.

”THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH”’
by meek he did not mean ”’meek”’…. but”””’ POOR ….”’
as population increases—————–
just compare in his time were a few thousands now a few billions7.5 to be precise..
in 2050 may touch a trillion..good medication….
if you don’t contain population
Well how can you? the game is ”’most thrilling”’ almost free …join ARMY ……..
Costs have increased 100 times
they give 10 percent compensation as DA
so that your VOTES for them sustain
Amen

Currency is a commodity like grains, minerals and other natural products. Commodity values are subject to supply and demand. Inflation by design is incorporated in value of every currency of every developing and developed nation. In the US inflation rate has fluctuated between about 1% to more than 10% in last 50years. Same applies to Indian rupees.

Impact of inflation on cost of living should be understood in constant value of any currency. Living conditions in India and the US have improved over last 50 years and the cost of living has appreciated accordingly.

For last 50 years the US $ is the global currency. The United States Dollar Index or DXY measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of other currencies including EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD, CHF and SEK. … United States Dollar – actual data, historical chart and calendar of releases – was last updated on October of 2016. For fluctuations in $ prices from 1967 to 2016 see: http://www.macrotrends.net/1329/us-dollar-index-historical-chart

Google search for more details.

Please note that exchange rate of US $1 = INR 7.5 in 1966 if I am not mistaken. Today it stands at US $1 = INR 67.5 or about 9 times that of rate in 1966.

Unless one compares values at constant dollar or Indian rupees, real inflation is not represented by such crude comparisons.

The land values in India, especially closure to the center of every urban center has appreciated as demand has outstripped supply. In 1967 my parents paid INR about 40,000 for a 1,200 sq ft apartment in a 4-story building. Today I understand same apartment is worth more than 20 lakh rupees.

Why?

The population of Pune was about 2 lakh in 1960; to day it is several million. So demand for living accommodation is Pune is very high and values of lands at peripheries of Pune has increased by orders of magnitude and Pune has continued to expand towards Mumbai and Nasik, etc.

Sir,
Thanks for sharing. Really nostalgic. I retain fair documents and memorabilia, but this one takes the cake.
Sir, I had requested you to mail me the paper – I believe you were instrumental in the study, which shows the differential age of passing on, of Faujis vis a vis civilians, railway employees etc. Can I request for same earliest please? Thanks.

Dear Sir,
Nice receiving your mails and recollecting olden days. Your recent one. While rummaging through old documents kept in my village
I retrieved my Diary ( journal) of 64- 65. My Second Year of Engineering at ACCET Karaikudi ( Madras University). Second Year College Tuition Fees & Sp fees for a term was Rs150/- in an Engineering College and the Mess Bill for a Month about 60 Rs. ( Morning Coffee, Tiffin, Lunch, evening Tiffin Coffee and Dinner)
I used to maintain my account in the last page.

The total expenditure for a Years’ study in an Engineering College was about Rs1500/-

I had the honour to meet Col SS Malik in person in 2005 along-with col Arun Ahuja when we all were posted in DRDO in Pune. What struck me most was his humility. He combines the best of human and military qualities.

Beautiful song and beautifully sung. As always, such songs take you down your own memory lane and conjure up for you images, faces, laughs and tears that you thought had gone forever. But then comes a song like this and you discover that they are all there, waiting to be accessed by the right password – Bahut dilon kay baad milay ho.